This course provides an introduction to the economic foundations for public decision-making regarding environmental quality and natural resources. Emphasis is placed on how basic tools of economic analysis can be used to identify sources of environmental problems and solutions to these problems. Topics to be covered include “individual hand” concepts underlying market success, market failure with particular focus on public goods and externalities, benefit-cost analysis and non-market valuation, incentive-based policies for controlling pollution, and economic aspects of renewable and non-renewable resources.

Outcome 1: Understand how economic incentives influence individual and group behavior and how this knowledge can be used to explain and address environmental challenges.

Outcome 2: Develop the ability to identify the range of potential economic costs and benefits of a particular environmental policy and the array of economic tools that can be used to estimate these costs and benefits.